The Cat Or, How I Lost Eternity
by Jutta Richter is the 2008 Batchelder Award winner.
This is kind of a strange story about an eight year old girl named Christine and a talking alley cat. On her way to school, Christine is always stopped by a talking cat who seems to want to have endless conversations. They talk about math, loneliness, and eternity. By the time she realizes, she arrives late to school on a daily basis. Finally, the principal calls her in and wants an explanation to her tardiness. Reluctant to tell the truth Christine tells him that a talking cat always stops her on her way to school. Of course, the principal doesn't believe a word she says so he tells her to write 200 lines stating repeatedly, "There are no talking cats and in the future I will come to class on time." She is forced to obey even though she totally knows that line is not entirely true. However, the cat pops into the picture and continues to give her advice. She tries to keep him off her mind and chasing him away one day. The next morning as she is walking to school, the cat hisses at her in anger for being chased away. Part of her wants to apologize but keeps on walking and arrives at school on time. She decides to complete the 200 lines and takes away the "no" in the sentence hoping the teacher wouldn't notice. However, after having one last conversation about the "Tree of Knowledge" Christine decides never to talk to the cat again.
This story was a bit strange in my opinion. I think the purpose of the talking cat was just to expose the little girl into different ways of thinking. He has his own philosophy of why and how things in life work so he is trying to explain all this to the little girl.
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